Selvedged woven fabric



Jan. 24, 1939. c.l cLUTsOM Y SELVEDGED WOVEN FABRIC Filed July'm 29, 1937 y INVENTOR ATTORNE Y! Patented Jan. 24, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT GFFICE SELVEDGED WOVEN FABRIC Application July 29, 1937, Serial No. 156,398 In Great Britain October 10, 1936 1 Claim.

This invention relates to Woven fabric and concerns particularly double-faced woven fabric and the method of producing the same. By a doublefaced woven fabric is meant a fabric which is composed of different wefts and warps woven so that the front of the fabric differs from the back as regards feel or appearance or both, as for example in a fabric having a silk or artificial silk or like lustrous front and a cotton, wool or like lustreless back.

The invention is applicable both to doublefaced elastic fabric, that is double-faced fabric composed of or incorporating elastic threads, and

to relatively non-elastic double-faced fabric composed wholly of relatively inelastic threads.

The invention may, moreover, be applied to pieces of double-faced Woven fabric of any width, for example elastic webs and like narrow pieces such as ribbons and braids, pieces of elastic fabric for manufacture subsequently into elastic garments, such for example as corsets, corselettes, belts, girdles and like foundation garments and pieces of ordinary woven fabric of still greater width for other purposes.

The present invention has for its object to provide a double-faced Woven fabric which has a selvedged edge or edges.

The invention may, moreover, be applied to both plain or fancy fabrics.

Accordingly, the invention comprises as a new article of manufacture a double-faced Woven fabric in which one or each of the weft threads is locked at one or both of the edges of the fabric by means of interconnected tying or binding loops of the said thread or threads.

In the accompanying drawing,

Figure 1 is a general view illustrative of the invention.

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic representation on an enlarged scale of a piece of double-faced fabric having a looped selvedge formed by knitting one only of the weft threads.

Figure 3 is a view of the edge of said fabric at which the selvedge is formed.

Figures 4 and 5 are two views similar to Figures 2 and 3 respectively representing a piece of double-faced woven fabric having a looped selvedge formed by knitting both of the weft threads.

In Figure 1 is shown one face of a piece of double-faced woven fabric of narrow width. Some of the warps--such as those indicated at in this particular fabric consist of elastic threads and in accordance with the invention the fabric is provided at one edge thereof with a looped or knitted selvedge a.

In the structure illust-rated in Figures 2 and 3, b represents the front face and c the back face of the fabric. The fabric comprises warps 2, front wefts 3, and back wefts 4 and has a knitted selvedge d which consists of a chain of loops 5 formed by knitting the front weft thread at the edge of the fabric. The weft thread at the back of the fabric is not knitted, but the looped ends 4a of each pair of back wefts 4 passes around one leg of each of the knitted loops 5 so that the two series of wefts are tied or bound together at the edge of the fabric.

Referring now to Figures 4 and 5, it will be seen that the front and the back weft threads are both knitted so as to form at the edge of the fabric a selvedge d comprising two adjacent chains of knitted loops 6 and 1, the chain 6 being formed by knitting the front weft thread and the chain l being similarly formed by knitting the back weft thread. Thus at the end of each pair of front wefts 3 and back wefts 4 there is a knitted loop, these loops being disposed in pairs and embracing adjacent pairs of front and back wefts as shown more clearly in Figure 5.

The loops 6 and 'l thus bind together the two series of wefts in such a way as to produce a selvedged edge which has the appearance of being plaited.

In order that the various threads may be clearly distinguished from each other in Figures 2-5, the warps 2 have been left unshaded and the front and back wefts 3 and 4 have been lightly and heavily shaded respectively.

The invention includes as a feature a method of making double-faced woven fabric which consists of knitting either or each of the weft threads at one or each edge of the fabric while the latter is being woven in order to produce a selvedge or selvedges whereby the said thread or threads is or are locked.

The method of making the improved fabric involves the use of a weft laying member or members for inserting the wefts and a thread engaging element or elements adapted to form the thread y into loops, for example a latch needle or needles constructed, arranged and operated in such a manner that during the weaving action the thread or threads to be knitted is or are engaged and formed into a chain or chains of loops.

The improved fabric is therefore produced on a shuttleless weaving loom having a weft laying member or members instead of a shuttle or shuttles and a thread engaging element or elements.

There may be a loop forming element on both fabric and a back weft thread interwoven with said Warps so as to remain exposed largely on the back of the fabric, said face and back weft threads being looped at at least one selvedge of the fabric and the loops thereof interknitted to- 5 gether so as to form a knitted locking selvedge.

CHARLES CLUTSOM. 

